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Opioids Weekend Coverage
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How Big Tobacco-style marketing propels U.S. opioid crisis — and powers $400B pharma industry
Jun 24, 2017 | NY Daily News
By Larry McShane
Meet the "Mad Men" of the new millennium. This legion of pill-peddling pitchmen launched a campaign that became a multi-billion dollar success — and, critics say, an unmitigated national disaster. Since 1995, when the federal government approved Purdue Pharma's new opioid OxyContin, the nation’s drug manufacturers enjoyed a windfall of profits. -
Editorial: Taking the opioid fight to the courts
Jun 26, 2017 | NorthJersey.com
The deadly opioid crisis that’s gripped New Jersey and the nation has many manifestations, and many causes. Treatment and prevention of the scourge have become an everyday part of the political lexicon, and a focus for Gov. Chris Christie during his final months in office. -
Are big drug companies responsible?
Jun 25, 2017 | Seacoast Online (NH)
By Karen Dandurant
Much of the country, including New Hampshire and Maine, is struggling with an unprecedented crisis – people addicted to heroin and other synthetic opioids. -
Missouri Third U.S. State to Sue Opioid Manufacturers
Jun 26, 2017 | Triple Pundit
By Leon Kaye
Alleging that Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson and Endo Health Solutions misrepresented the risks about the drugs they manufacture and sell, Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley filed a lawsuit last week accusing the drug companies of fraud. Missouri is now the third state to file litigation against the three manufacturers, joining the attorneys general of Ohio and Mississippi in their quest for retribution for what they say has been these companies’ fueling of the drug epidemic. -
CA Fire Districts File Suit Against Drug Companies Over Opioid Crisis
Jun 24, 2017 | The Stockton Record (CA)
By Roger Phillips
The city, county and a local fire district recently sued several major pharmaceutical companies and a medical distribution firm, charging them with damaging the local economy by promoting the use of opioid painkillers they knew to be dangerous and extremely addictive. -
(LETTER) Don't blame legit drugmakers for opioid crisis
Jun 26, 2017 | Trib Live
By Jack Juris
What a statement we get from Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine filing a lawsuit against drugmakers ( “Ohio attorney general sues 5 drugmakers over opioid abuse crisis” ). He says drugmakers mislead patients on the dangers of painkillers.
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How Big Tobacco-style marketing propels U.S. opioid crisis — and powers $400B pharma industry
Jun 24, 2017 | NY Daily News
By Larry McShane
Meet the "Mad Men" of the new millennium.
This legion of pill-peddling pitchmen launched a campaign that became a multi-billion dollar success — and, critics say, an unmitigated national disaster.
Since 1995, when the federal government approved Purdue Pharma's new opioid OxyContin, the nation’s drug manufacturers enjoyed a windfall of profits.
And why not? The new drug was billed as a panacea for pain of all types, from creaky knees to sore backs.
The truth, according to a series of ever-increasing lawsuits: Big Pharma, a $400 billion-a-year industry and by far the most free-spending lobby in Washington, sold a Big Lie about its wonder drug.
Deliberately deceptive advertising and overly aggressive marketing were — and remain — the twin anchors of the national opioid crisis, according to litigants.
“That's where it begins and ends,” said Paul Hanly, whose firm Simmons Hanly Conroy represents counties across New York state in lawsuits against the drug companies.
“You don't get to this point without the fake marketing. They promoted this ultimately phony science that is utter bulls---. There is zero science to support it. They just made it up, and did what Big Tobacco once did.”
A lawsuit filed last month by the state of Ohio against five major drug manufacturers made the same claim in less colorful terms, with the state’s top prosecutor putting the defendants in his crosshairs.
“It is time to hold them accountable," said Ohio State Attorney General Mike DeWine. “And it is time for them to stop deceiving Ohio — and America.”
The pharmaceutical companies deny the charges. But DeWine is hardly alone in pointing the finger at Big Pharma for the overdose deaths of 91 Americans each day and 33,000 in all of 2015.
The state of Mississippi filed suit two years ago, with eight New York counties — from Suffolk on Long Island to upstate Broome to bucolic Sullivan — recently doing the same.
Missouri, just last week, became the third state taking Big Pharma to court. Attorney General John Hawley announced the multi-million dollar suit alongside Jammie Fabick, a St. Louis mom whose 17-year-old daughter was found dead of an overdose in her bedroom three years ago.
"If this sounds like a nightmare," she said, "it definitely has been for our family."
But the roots of the 21st-century opioid crisis date back to the waning days of the Carter Administration, long before OxyContin became a staple of America's medicine cabinets.
THE LETTER
The Jan. 10, 1980, edition of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine carried an innocuous, one-paragraph letter to the editor. Its author was an anonymous doctor named Hershel Jick.
The missive wasn't particularly well-written or well-sourced, although its parting line became the mantra of pharmaceutical companies selling prescription opioids:
“We conclude that despite widespread use of narcotic drugs in hospitals, the development of addiction is rare in medical patients with no history of addiction.”
The Jick letter, as it became known, caused no initial outcry or outrage. But as time passed and new drugs emerged, it was twisted into into an endorsement of opioids without fear of addiction.
"It's a letter to the editor!" shouted Hanly when asked about it. "It's five lines long!”
In the Journal’s recent June 1 edition, another letter to the editor reported that Jick’s note had been cited more than 600 times over the years. More than 70% of the mentions promoted opioids as a low addiction risk.
KEY OPINION LEADERS
The pharmaceutical companies recruited their own traveling spokespeople, a group of opioid-pushing Pied Pipers known as the KOL: Key Opinion Leaders.
Take Dr. Russell Portenoy, dubbed "The King of Pain" by Time magazine.
A former top doc at the Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan, Portenoy was on the payroll of at least four different pharmaceutical companies, according to court documents.
He became a tireless shill, even appearing on “Good Morning America” in 2010 with this comforting message: “Addiction, when treating pain, is distinctly uncommon.”
That same year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported enough opioids were prescribed to keep every adult in the country zonked for a full month.
Dr. Lynn Webster, co-founder of a Salt Lake City pain clinic, earned a seven-figure windfall from various pharmaceutical companies to extol the power of opioids. As it turned out, more than 20 of his patients at Lifetree Clinical Research died of opioid overdoses.
It wasn't just doctors who qualified as KOLs.
In 2002, Purdue brought aboard ex-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani to work behind the scenes in their fight against Oxy's growing number of critics.
DETAILERS
Big Pharma also deployed an army of sales reps. Known as “detailers,” they traveled the country to address doctors and staff in hospitals and private offices. Each delivered carefully vetted pitches and swag: Free hats, free meals and plush toys.
“They go to Dubuque, Iowa, and host a lunch for 10 family physicians,” said attorney Hanly of the marketing plan. "What do they know about opioids — nothing.
“The so-called expert peddles this story. And the primary care physicians go, 'OK, I learned I can give Oxy to somebody who comes in with a sore knee.’”
According to the city of Chicago’s suit, Purdue doubled its sales force between 1997-2002. Its reps, “directed to target the most prolific opioid prescribers,” earned $40 million in bonuses in 2001.
“This is pharmaceutical companies, doctors, pain specialists, massively and very aggressively trying to prescribe pain pills," said Sam Quinones, author of the award-winning book "Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opioid Epidemic."
“And in unending quantities."
FRONT GROUPS
The American Pain Foundation sounded good — until you actually started listening.
Despite its lofty title, the APF was cited in lawsuits as Big Pharma's most prominent "front group," spreading opioid misinformation for years.
According to the Ohio lawsuit, pharmaceutical companies pumped more than $10 million into the APF between 2007 and its May 2012 shutdown. Its president: Dr. Portenoy.
The advocacy group “touted the benefits of opioids for chronic pain and trivialized their risks,” according to court documents.
One disastrous APF campaign plugging opioids for returning veterans resulted in “high risks of addiction ... (and) death,” one lawsuit charged.
Though nominally an independent patient advocacy group, APF allegedly collaborated closely with the pharmaceutical companies — and a second Big-Pharma-funded organization.
The American Academy of Pain Management, according to court papers, received a total of $2.2 million in corporate cash beginning in 2009.
AAPM hosted an annual meeting in a Palm Springs, Calif., resort, where the executive committee members "presented deceptive programs to doctors who attended," court papers charged.
Their efforts helped make opioids more American than apple pie: The U.S. — with 4% of the world's population — ingests 80% of its opioids, according to one of the lawsuits.
THE 2007 PROSECUTION
The first legal shot fired at the pharmaceutical companies came 10 years ago, when federal prosecutors in Virginia went after Purdue over its OxyContin marketing.
They won ... and nothing changed.
The charge was simple and damning: Beginning in December 1995, the company “with the intent to defraud or mislead, marketed and promoted OxyContin as less addictive (and), less subject to abuse.”
A plea deal was reached in July 2007, with Purdue agreeing to pay a $600 million fine. The execs paid another $34.5 million fine — but dodged any jail time.
The corporate bosses sat mute as a parade of their product's victims spoke in court. Lee Nuss traveled up from Palm Coast, Fla., clutching the urn that held the ashes of her 18-year-old son Randall, an overdose victim.
“This is from your drug, OxyContin, and here he is, in this courtroom," she announced.
The case, rather than a turning point, became a blip on the radar. By 2010, Oxy revenues hit $3.1 billion.
"I actually thought that would be the end of it,” said Hanly. “But $635 million is walking around money for a company like Purdue.
“Purdue continued to do what they do,” said Hanly, and the other companies followed suit.”
THE BEAT GOES ON
The current legal battle hasn’t changed much: Opioid sales remain strong, and opioid deaths keep exploding. Advertising figures remain high: in 2014, $168 million was spent on pharma companies’ direct sales pitches by its ad reps, court papers show.
The Associated Press reported recently that drug companies and their lobbyists have spent $880 million over 10 years to fight tougher opioid restrictions.
Despite the still-growing number of casualties from opioid addiction and overdose, Big Pharma continues to proclaim its innocence.
Johnson & Johnson's pharmaceutical arm, in a statement, describes the lawsuit allegations as “legally and factually unfounded.”
Purdue spokesman John Puskar said the company “vigorously denies the allegations in the complaint," arguing that the issue was more complex than laid out in the lawsuits. "Pointing fingers will not solve the problem, nor will it help those who are suffering," said Puskar. And Teva Pharmaceutical stressed they were part of the solution, not the problem.
“Teva is committed to the appropriate promotion and use of opioids," said spokeswoman Elizabeth DeLuca. "We are committed to working with the health care community, regulators and public officials to collaboratively find solutions."
No one expects a short, sweet and simple resolution to the lawsuits. The Chicago case, filed in 2014, still awaits its day in court. The original suit was dismissed in 2015 for its failure to identify specific Chicago doctors of consumers misled by the companies.
A federal judge approved an amended version to proceed, but it hasn’t yet.
Author Quinones, describing the companies as modern-day gangsters driven by greed, believes their day will come.
“This is the first drug epidemic that doesn't start with street peddlers — the Mafia, drug dealers, gangs," said Quinones.
“These lawsuits are a way of forcing the price of these pills to accurately reflect their true social cost on the communities where they are oversold and overprescribed,” he said.
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Editorial: Taking the opioid fight to the courts
Jun 26, 2017 | NorthJersey.com
The deadly opioid crisis that’s gripped New Jersey and the nation has many manifestations, and many causes. Treatment and prevention of the scourge have become an everyday part of the political lexicon, and a focus for Gov. Chris Christie during his final months in office.
What before now has been less talked about is how accountable drug makers should be held as we continue to explore more about the origins of a crisis that zoomed out of control relatively quickly, and continues to wreak havoc on Americans of all ages.
As State House Bureau reporter Dustin Racioppi reported last week, the state Attorney General’s Office has joined a multi-state investigation of the pharmaceutical industry for its potential role in the opioid crisis. The Record also learned that the office has issued a subpoena to Johnson & Johnson, the New Brunswick-based pharmaceutical company, related to the marketing practices for opioids by subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals.
Meanwhile, the opioid crisis has become one of the deadliest public health crises in modern American history. Drug overdoses, fueled mostly by heroin and other opioids, killed more than 52,000 people in 2015, more than the roughly 43,000 who died at the peak of the HIV/AIDS crisis in 1995. And the country appears on track to have exceeded 59,000 drug-related deaths last year, according to preliminary data analyzed by The New York Times.
Of course, the opioid crisis doesn’t affect just the addict, but friends and family members as well, emotionally and sometimes financially. If the addiction is strong enough, those hooked on opioids will resort to almost anything to get their next fix.
In short, the public needs to understand the depth of the problem in order to properly attack it. Part of that understanding has to do with finding out how and why so many painkillers were pushed into the market in the first place. To what degree the pharmaceutical industry is involved is not just a matter of accountability, but also understanding exactly the size and scope of the crisis.
“New Jersey’s involvement in this multi-state effort is an essential step toward gaining a complete picture of the roots of this epidemic, and in determining whether and to what extent unlawful conduct by drug makers has been a contributor,” said New Jersey Attorney General Christopher Porrino.
In recent years, The Record has documented in several stories the depth and expanse of the opioid epidemic in North Jersey, which ranges from its most wealthy suburbs to the ravaged streets of Paterson, affecting members of families of every economic bracket in between. When Christie announced his new initiatives to combat the crisis, he rightly pointed out that the opioid crisis knows no ZIP code.
We don’t yet know the full extent to which so-called “Big Pharma” may have been involved in starting or sustaining the crisis, but we hope that with multiple investigations under way, and several lawsuits filed — Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine has sued five drug makers for allegedly misrepresenting the risk of opioids — a truer picture will begin to emerge.
In Washington, lawmakers should bear in mind the unusually large scope of the opioid crisis before they pass any bill to alter the Affordable Care Act, which provides funding through Medicaid with which to battle the addiction crisis. Meanwhile, a growing number of states, including New Jersey, have made it clear they intend to fight the crisis on various fronts, even if they have to confront drug makers in order to do so.
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Are big drug companies responsible?
Jun 25, 2017 | Seacoast Online (NH)
By Karen Dandurant
Much of the country, including New Hampshire and Maine, is struggling with an unprecedented crisis – people addicted to heroin and other synthetic opioids.
While states frantically search for an answer for their own populations, some are turning their eyes toward big pharmaceutical companies as the source of the problem. Lawsuits being filed indicate that the pharma companies falsely represented their products as safe, even non-addictive if used “correctly” and what we see today is the result.
Ohio is the latest state, suing five drug companies for what they say is a misrepresentation of the dangers of opioid painkillers, resulting in the state’s opioid addiction and overdose crisis.
Dan Tierney, spokesperson for the Ohio Attorney General’s office, said the suit, filed May 31, is the second filed by a state against pharmaceutical companies. Mississippi has already filed suit.
The lawsuit indicates that in 2016, 20 percent of Ohio’s population was prescribed an opiate. In 2015, 1,663,614 opioid pills were dispensed, equating to 182.2 per patient in a single county (Ross). The lawsuit indicates that deceptive advertising and direct marketing to doctors, with the implication that the drugs were safe, is directly responsible for the crisis.
The lawsuit, filed in Ross County Common Pleas Court, seeks an injunction and damages from five major opioid manufacturers: Purdue Pharma, Endo Health Solutions, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and subsidiary Cephalon, Johnson & Johnson and subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals, and Allergan, formerly known as Actavis.
In the 170-page lawsuit, Ohio officials allege the company overstated the benefits of the drugs, while underplaying the risks, and that they did so knowingly. They seek restitution to the state for costs incurred by an addicted population, resulting in many deaths and a huge, continuing cost to the state.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), opioids — prescription and illicit — are the main driver of drug overdose deaths. Opioids were involved in 33,091 deaths in 2015, and opioid overdoses have quadrupled since 1999.
In 2015, the five states with the highest rates of death due to drug overdose were West Virginia (41.5 per 100,000), New Hampshire (34.3 per 100,000), Kentucky (29.9 per 100,000), Ohio (29.9 per 100,000), and Rhode Island (28.2 per 100,000).
While no lawsuit has yet been filed in New Hampshire or Maine, there has been talk among those working with people who are suffering from a substance abuse disorder, and from state officials dealing with the onslaught of an ever-rising problem.
Justin Looser, director of Behavioral Health at Portsmouth Regional Hospital, has no hesitation about his belief that drug companies should be held accountable for the country’s opioid crisis. He said 270 million prescriptions are issued each year for opioids, enough for every adult in America to have one.
“I certainly agree that the companies misrepresented their product,” said Looser. “Just go on YouTube and look at their ads. The drugs are implied as non-addictive, and something that patients can be on for a long time. Well, 80 percent of people with a substance abuse problem started with a pharmaceutical pain reliever.”
“I don’t necessarily buy that the pharmaceutical companies bear all the blame,” said John Marzinzik, CEO of Frisbie Memorial Hospital. “A patient needs to take some responsibility and do their research. There is plenty of literature out now about the risks.”
Marzinzik said he had a surgery and was given opioids, He made the decision not to use them.
“I was given a jug of the stuff,” he said. “I didn’t like how they made me feel and I threw them out. At what point should we be saying, I can handle a bit of pain? Are there other issues that make them take a left turn somewhere?”
Looser said drugs like Oxycontin were touted as breakthrough drugs. He said doctors prescribed it liberally, because they thought it was safe.
“Oxycontin was originally designed as an end-stage cancer pain reliever,” said Looser. “Then it was used for people with chronic pain, theoretically for the rest of their lives. Perdue has made upwards of $30 billion. They need to have some accountability, whether on their own, or through the courts. They need to help take care of a problem they caused.”
Tierney said their suit is not only asking for retribution costs to provide treatment. They are also asking for abatement costs for expenses the state incurred other than treatment, but directly related.
“We are talking about costs incurred in the foster care system,” said Tierney. “Half of all children in our foster care system are there because one or more parents are addicted to drugs. We are talking about the jail systems. In Ohio, our jails are run by the counties. They are seeing inmates for crimes and parole violations associated with feeding their habits. The jails are becoming detox centers.”
Looser said he has heard talk of lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies for several years now. He said he hopes it happens.
“Even them providing money for treatment programs would be a start,” said Looser. “I think it’s astonishing where we are now and they need to take responsibility for that.”
Tierney said their suit alleges the drug companies knowingly created a public health and safety nuisance.
“We want to them to help undo the damage they have done,” said Tierney. “We believe our evidence shows they sought to change the culture and now they have to answer for that.”
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Missouri Third U.S. State to Sue Opioid Manufacturers
Jun 26, 2017 | Triple Pundit
By Leon Kaye
Alleging that Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson and Endo Health Solutions misrepresented the risks about the drugs they manufacture and sell, Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley filed a lawsuit last week accusing the drug companies of fraud. Missouri is now the third state to file litigation against the three manufacturers, joining the attorneys general of Ohio and Mississippi in their quest for retribution for what they say has been these companies’ fueling of the drug epidemic.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), over 33,000 Americans died of opioid overdose deaths in 2015, and opioid overdoses have quadrupled since 1999. With cash-strapped municipalities and police departments finding themselves overwhelmed by the crisis, along with the perception that drug companies are doing little to stop the opioid epidemic, public officials’ latest chess move is to focus on Big Pharma’s marketing tactics.
“Our state faces an urgent public-health crisis brought on by fraud,” Hawley said in a public statement. “Today, we begin to fight to put an end to this crisis as we fight for the thousands of lives endangered and lost to the opioid epidemic.”
Hawley’s sentiment echoed Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine when he filed a similar lawsuit in late May. “These drug manufacturers led prescribers to believe that opioids were not addictive, that addiction was an easy thing to overcome, or that addiction could actually be treated by taking even more opioids,” DeWine said on May 31 when he announced his state’s litigation against these drug companies. “They knew they were wrong, but they did it anyway — and they continue to do it.”
As of press time, none of the companies responded publicly to the lawsuits. In emails to several news organizations, a Purdue Pharma spokesperson denied the allegations, but said it “shared” Hawley’s concerns about the ongoing opioid crisis. Both Janssen Pharmaceuticals, the division of Johnson & Johnson that has been sued by the three states, and Endo, have emailed similar statements to reporters nationwide. Any public discussion about these companies’ opioid products, however, are difficult to find. Endo claims a “culture of compliance” within the corporate responsibility of its web site, but is silent about opioids other than reporting the result of clinical trials. Janssen does not mention its opioids targeted by the lawsuits within its site.
The one company that embroiled in this litigation that has claimed it is taking accountability is Purdue Pharma, which announced some new programs in the fallout of last year’s investigation by the Los Angeles Times. The newspaper had accused the company of misrepresenting the effectiveness of its sales representatives’ recommended dosage of OxyContin. Since that report, Purdue Pharma insists it is “learning from the past while focusing on the future,” and has launched several programs, including partnerships with law enforcement officials and funds to improve monitoring technologies of prescription data.
Nevertheless, to many analysts, these drug companies under question, along with their competitors, have largely walked away from taking responsibility for the crisis. Meanwhile, families have been shattered and local governments find themselves fronting the costs of the resulting social problems. One report last year suggested the social, health care and criminal justice system costs have cost society at least $78.5 billion.
Hawley’s announcement comes at a time when the political class has become increasingly vocal about opioids’ impact on their constituents. Earlier this year, Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri demanded data from five of the top U.S. opioid manufacturers, saying an investigation was warranted for what has been at least 200,000 overdose deaths since 2000. Although companies including Purdue Pharma said they were reviewing requests, little has resulted from McCaskill’s inquiry.
But Purdue Pharma symbolizes what the public perceives as the pharmaceutical industry’s meek response to the opioid crisis. These companies have all profited handsomely from the sales of these drugs, while cities and counties have borne the costs of the tolls drugs while too many parents have had to bury their kids. Purdue Pharma has constantly parroted the phrase, “OxyContin accounts for only 2 percent of the opioid analgesic prescriptions nationally, but we are an industry leader in the development of abuse-deterrent technology and advocating for the use of prescription drug monitoring programs.”
Repeating that statement, however, has done little to earn the reassurance and trust of families and public officials. It may be easy to ignore one of 100 loquacious U.S. senators, but as ExxonMobil is finding out, dodging the arsenal of states’ attorneys general and their staffs is a far more difficult task. If more states join Missouri, Ohio and Mississippi, these companies risk having even more of their dirty laundry aired, and will reap even more consumer backlash in the process.
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CA Fire Districts File Suit Against Drug Companies Over Opioid Crisis
Jun 24, 2017 | The Stockton Record (CA)
By Roger Phillips
The city, county and a local fire district recently sued several major pharmaceutical companies and a medical distribution firm, charging them with damaging the local economy by promoting the use of opioid painkillers they knew to be dangerous and extremely addictive.
The 52-page complaint was filed in Superior Court late last month by two private law firms on behalf of Stockton, San Joaquin County and the Montezuma Fire Protection District, which serves unincorporated portions of southeast Stockton.
The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages. It says the defendants are culpable for two decades of knowingly misrepresenting the benefits and downplaying the addictive dangers of opioid medications, costing the plaintiffs millions of dollars each year in health care expenses.
"The illegal acts of all Defendants have directly ... caused injury and damage to the economies and prosperity" of the entities that filed the litigation, the lawsuit says.
Stockton-based William H. Parish, one of the attorneys who filed the suit, said it will take at least 18 months to get a court date in Superior Court. The case has been assigned to Judge Barbara Kronlund.
"This is likely to be tried to a jury and the jury would determine the amount (if the plaintiffs prevail)," Parish said.
Five pharmaceutical manufacturers and one distributor are listed as defendants in the case. The manufacturers are Purdue Pharma; Teva Pharmaceuticals; Johnson & Johnson and its Janssen Pharmaceuticals subsidiary; and Endo Health Solutions. McKesson Corporation, the largest pharmaceutical distributor in North America, also is named in the suit.
Representatives from Purdue, Teva and McKesson sent written responses to inquiries by The Record about the lawsuit. Parish said this week some of the defendant companies had not yet been served.
"While we vigorously deny the allegations in the complaint, we share public officials' concerns about the opioid crisis and we are committed to working collaboratively to find solutions," the Purdue response said, in part. "Addiction and drug abuse are multi-faceted problems that require multi-faceted solutions. Pointing fingers will not solve the problem, nor will it help those who are suffering."
The responses from Teva and McKesson focused on efforts the companies say they are engaged in to combat the opioid epidemic.
"Teva is committed to the appropriate promotion and use of opioids," one response said. "We have programs in place that educate prescribers, pharmacists, and patients on the responsible and safe use of these products. We are committed to working with the healthcare community, regulators and public officials to collaboratively find solutions."
The litigation mirrors numerous lawsuits filed by public agencies across the United States in recent years. Last month, Teva settled a 2014 lawsuit by Orange and Santa Clara counties for $1.6 million.
Companies listed in the Stockton-area lawsuit produce and distribute drugs with brand names such as OxyContin, Percocet and Dilaudid, and with chemical names such as morphine sulfate, fentanyl and hydrocodone.
"They are derived from, or possess properties similar to, opium and heroin, and as such they are highly addictive and dangerous and therefore are regulated ... as so-called 'controlled substances,' " the lawsuit says.
"Defendants ... have manufactured, promoted, marketed, and distributed opioids for the management of pain by intentionally misleading consumers and medical providers ... regarding the appropriate uses, risks, and safety of opioids."
According to the lawsuit, Americans consume 80 percent of the opioids supplied around the world but represent less than 5 percent of the population. Opioids generated $8 billion in sales in 2012 alone for the manufacturers, the suit says, noting that the federal Food and Drug Administration cited opioid abuse as a "public health crisis" in 2016.
Dr. Benjamin Morrison, chief medical officer for Community Medical Centers in Stockton, has no involvement in the lawsuit but said drug companies bear a responsibility for accurately representing the properties of their products.
"I think drug companies ... marketing directly to patients is a very dangerous practice," Morrison said. "We use far more prescription opioids in the United States than the rest of the world. That's clearly a problem."
Data from the California Department of Public Health is startling. According to the CDPH, there were slightly more than 600,000 opioid prescriptions in San Joaquin County in 2015. The county has about 700,000 residents.
That same year, there were 45 deaths, 106 emergency-room visits and 114 overdose hospitalizations in the county attributable to opioids, according to the CDPH. Statewide, the data says there were more than 24 million opioid prescriptions and nearly 2,000 overdose deaths in California.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported more than 28,600 opioid deaths nationally in 2014.
-- Contact reporter Roger Phillips at (209) 546-8299 or rphillips@recordnet.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/phillipsblog and on Twitter @rphillipsblog.
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(LETTER) Don't blame legit drugmakers for opioid crisis
Jun 26, 2017 | Trib Live
By Jack Juris
What a statement we get from Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine filing a lawsuit against drugmakers ( “Ohio attorney general sues 5 drugmakers over opioid abuse crisis” ). He says drugmakers mislead patients on the dangers of painkillers.
I'm amazed people are this misinformed or ignorant about what they take, because pharmacies provide detailed instructions with every prescription.
Our system forces doctors to put patients' medication information into a database, creating more work for doctors. So, they tell their patients to use extra-strength Tylenol. That's like throwing a chair off the Titanic: It won't help.
Pain medication has a real place in our society. Diseases, surgical pain, chronic pain and other ailments require relief. Now, we have paranoid doctors not prescribing needed pain relief while liberal judges slap the hands of drug dealers.
Why not make it a “risk all” for dealing drugs? Some countries give life sentences or death to first-time drug dealers. Here we give them the Life of Riley, with amenities some citizens don't even have.
Drugmakers provide a quality of life for people with pain.
No, I'm not affiliated with a drug company, but I have had a real need for pain medication in my lifetime, and it is borderline stupidity when the word “Tylenol” is mentioned.
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